Be Positive.. Accept only what you want

Once Gautama Buddha and his student Ram went to a small village to preach religious teachings. Since they walked a long distance, they felt thirsty. They went towards a small house and asked the woman inside for some water. The woman came out and started scolding as she thought they were beggars, but Buddha smiled and moved to the next house.

The student got confused with Buddha’s calm behavior and got angry with the lady. Buddha noticed his student’s facial expression and understood him. He called him and told "Ram keep this Gold Coin with you and give it to me when I ask for it". The student accepted and got the coin. Still the student had the confusion in his mind about the incident.

Hours passed, they were done with their work and started their journey towards their place. Ram was still puzzled by the incident and his swamiji's strange behavior. Now Buddha asked his student "Ram! Can you please give me the gold coin?” The student gave the coin and Buddha received it with a smile. Now Buddha appreciated his student for his extra efforts towards the preaching for the day and rewarded the same gold coin to Ram and he received it with a smile.

Before going to bed, Ram came to Buddha’s place and wanted to talk to him. Buddha took him to the garden and listened. "Swamiji! That lady scolded us in the morning but you were so silent; I’m upset. But you seem to not be affected by it! How is this possible? Buddha now had the same smile and replied "Ram, this morning I had given you that gold coin for you to keep for a while. Now tell me to whom did that coin belong at that instance?" Ram replied quickly "it was yours because you told me to keep it just for some time".
Buddha : "That's right, now can you tell me to whom this coin belongs, after I gave it to you the second time?"
Ram: "This coin now belongs to me as you have gifted it to me for my work and I accepted it"
Buddha now held Ram's hand and said "This can be applied to our life also. The lady scolded me but I did not accept anything and so those words do not belong to me !”
The Student got his doubts clarified and then worshipped his guru for his precious words.

The Moral of the story: Keep positive thoughts and skip the negative ones, develop a positive attitude and diminish pessimism.

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